Health

I just took a health survey. It told me I was on track, but needed to eat more whole grains. I knew it was going to do that when I saw question 34. It’s based on the US food pyramid that recommends 6-11 servings of grains. I say no thanks to elevated glucose levels! However, they saw this as a problem.

Here’s a great post from Mark’s Daily Apple that illustrates the grain fallacy.

In all fairness, I’m glad there’s a health survey out there to educate people. How our body responds to different things we eat is a huge labyrinth with many unknown answers. I applaud the survey for just existing.

I did however have feedback for them. Here is my feedback verbatim.

There are two main flaws that I noticed in this data. I don’t blame you for having them, you are following mainstream beliefs. However, you cannot base a health assessment on flawed data.

1. Your survey assumes eating whole grains is healthy. This is NOT true. The majority of the studies used to bolster this belief compares whole grain consumption with processed grain consumption. Of course the disease rates of diabetes and CAD would be lower than processed grains. However, they never compare whole grain disease rates with subjects who consume no grains. While grains provide fiber, they provide little nutrients and high calories. In other words, they are high energy and low nutrient dense. They are high energy also because they supply a large amount of glucose. Glucose raises blood sugar. And, to top it off, I bet you go by the 6 – 11 servings a day recommended by the US Food Pyramid. This means insulin insensitivity for cells and that the pancreas has to continually produce insulin and amylase. By following the whole grain advice, I would actually increase my chances for diabetes type 1 and 2. Also, there is a direct correlation between sugar consumption and blood triglycerides. You ask for my number, but you do not ask about sugar consumption. That is probably the highest indicator of disease there is apart from a sedentary life style.
2. Your survey assumes using plant oils for cooking is healthy. This means you support the Lipid Hypothesis. Actually, the rise of heart disease correlates with the use of plant oils substituting for animal fats. Corn oil, canola, safflower, etc are all extracted from seeds by the use of solvents. Solvents like bleach that still remain in small quantities in the oil. Also, these oils turn rancid in light. Once rancid, they are free radicals. Free radicals contribute to cell wall loss also known as premature aging. Animal fats are much more stable than plant oils. Even olive oil, the best plant oil, that is cold pressed, the best way to extract oil, must be kept in a dark container to prevent it from going rancid.

Another comment: In addition, my body fat has gone down to 10% since I stopped consuming grains. Although, your study mentioned BMI, which should be considered BSI, it did not mention a low body fat percentage as healthy. When I took the survey before it was 17%.

Hey! I mean Long Slow Distance exercise! I’m talking about running.

I spent quite a few years running. I did it for most of my late twenties. I loved it, especially trail running. I believed it kept me fit. I ate and drank whatever I wanted and just ran the miles to keep any sign of fat off. Things seemed to be just grand.

As time went on (about 5 years of this), I started to wonder why my back was hurting. Also, I found I had knee pain…every time I would kneel to pick up kid’s toys and especially when I ran.

In about Aug 2000, after I had finished a solo bike trip through Alaska, my back was in terrible shape. I ran when I could, but ended up having back surgery in 2002. I generally held off on the running until about 2 years after the surgery. As my back problems persisted, my frustration led me to learn how to train better.

While in Personal Training school, I got deep into the mainstream thinking on endurance exercise. While my “cardio” time was only about 20 min 4 days a week (of mostly interval type) and my weight lifting was varied, my body weight stayed the same except my body fat percentage was decreasing. I was quite happy with that as it meant lean tissue was replacing fat. I was building muscle and didn’t have any pain.

I thought I’d kick it up a notch and really drop the fat and get back into running. Bodybuilders would do cardio for longer periods and sometimes twice a day to shed the fat. So, I figured I’d start doing long runs (just doing the cardio longer). I had a period of about a month of running 8 miles at a time. I dreamed of running the Western Endurance 100. I kept my diet and weight routine the same.

There was a problem though. Actually, more than one. Luckily my back didn’t bother me as I had that figured out, but my knees started to hurt again. My calcaneal tendon (Achilies heal) started to bother me. And, to top it off, I was losing muscle! I regained 2% of body fat and lost weight! I got fatter! I had to do this measurement quite a few times to make sure it was correct. It was.

I have since dropped the LSD and moved into sprints (barefooted!) and brief but intense strength sessions. I have regained my gains in the body fat department. In short, all of this added up to a conclusion that LSD wasn’t for me.

Now I should state that walking long distances is a different story altogether.

Having gone deeply into health, I notice unhealthy things. I notice the choices that others make that are unhealthy. It’s interesting. I see that many people make the choices from moment to moment without considering the build up of all the choices before. It’s like there’s a running balance building up that isn’t visible until the balance is large and hard to manage. In this description the credit card analogy fits. It’s not this way for everything, but still it’s clear that either the results they are getting aren’t visible (balance is building inside the body in terms of a metabolic disease) or they are ignoring them (visible adipose tissue).

In all of this, I don’t fail to see the potential for health that is there. I see stiff knees and an overweight frame. I know that carrying a lot of extra weight causes stress on the joints. If someone is 50lbs overweight, it’s like carrying a 50lb sack of dog food around all the time (except the weight is distributed all over). This can take a big toll on the feet, knees and hips (not to mention the low back).

I know if the weight is lifted and movement is practiced in many cases, the joints will work better and that the energy will flow. This may be all a person wants to achieve, but there’s even more that can be achieved. The human body can really do amazing things.

In the San Francisco Circus Center, I’ve seen incredible things. People can move like monkeys between two vertical poles. The hand-balancing is incredible. My Chinese acrobatics teacher is in his 60’s and still does cartwheels. I trained with a retired Air Force colonel who is 66 and he was working on his back hand spring.

If one wants to explore the potential, it’s there. It’s just waiting to be sought.